Dancing Queen
by songbyrdk
Summary: This is the story of Lani Kikosa DDRer extraordinaire. The game consumed her, but she has everything under control. That is, until Darcy shows up threatening to rattle more than her pride. IT'S UPDATED! [Ch 2] Please read and review.
1. Prologue

**AUTHORS NOTE: The game Dance Dance Revolution is by Konami, and all songs and lyrics are property of/licensed to Konami. Characters in this story are of my own invention, as is the plot. Some elements of this story are based on actuality, others are exaggerated. Names have been changed. Enjoy. (K)**

**Dancing Queen**

****

I can recall the first time perfectly. It was late July, summer of 2000. We – my family and I – were spending our vacation just outside of Toronto, as we did every summer. It was raining outside.

We took refuge in an arcade just down the road from our hotel. I suppose I shouldn't just call it _any _arcade. It was Playdium. We had planned on spending a day there sometime during our vacation, it just wasn't that day. But the rain modified our agenda a little.

We charged up our game cards and followed a dark hallway, illuminated by green and blue neon lights. My brothers stepped quickly but carefully, taking note of each marking on the wall. I ran.

When we reached the end of the tunnel, my heart stopped for a moment. It was hardcore arcade atmosphere. Pinball machines, car racing games, and the classic arcade games, like Galaxian and PacMan. I was in my element.

My brothers ran off in search of a Nintendo system, or the like. I let myself wander aimlessly through aisles and aisles of games, watching everything. A small boy had won the jackpot on Cyclone and was screaming with delight as the machine spat out long runs of tickets. A girl about my age was yelling profusely at a tall man, and kicked at the bottom of the Skee Ball lane. There was a simulated karate match going on between a father and his son.

And that's when I saw it. Cornered off in a little cubicle of its own. Infectious house music emanated from the machine. A boy of around fourteen stood on a platform raised slightly above the ground. I could see arrows climbing up the screen – dozens of arrows, scrolling up faster and faster. The boy bounded around the platform, and lights lit up from under his feet. My arms folded over my pink tee shirt in fascination, and I couldn't tear my eyes away. I found myself rocking to the beat of the music.

The song ended, and the boy hopped off the platform, swinging his legs up as he gripped a sort of brace behind the platform. His eyes met mine.

"Do you play?" he shouted to me, over the noise of the rest of the arcade around us.

I frowned in confusion. "Huh?"

He came closer to me, and I could see his dark eyes shining, reflecting the haunting glow of the arcade. "DDR. Have you ever played before?"

I shook my head slowly, unblinking. "What's DDR?"

He pointed to the fluorescent green sign above the machine. "Dance Dance Revolution. DDR. It's a game."

"A game," I repeated. "Nope, never heard of it."

His smile was a bright white. "You'd be good at it. Here, I'll show you."

He took my hand in his, gently pulling me onto the platform. I saw there was a keypad of arrows.

"Oh, it's a control pad for your feet!" I exclaimed, thrilled. I stepped on a pink arrow. It lit up.

"More than just a control pad. It's a dancing game. You're a good dancer."

That caught me off-guard. I wasn't a good dancer. My friends laughed whenever I tried to dance. And this guy had never even seen me. I laughed, shaking my head. "No, I wouldn't say I'm that great of a dancer."

His eyes looked down on me, piercing mine. His fingers brushed mine lightly. "You are. You move with rhythm."

I laughed again, pulling away from him. "That's not what everyone else thinks."

"Everyone else? I'm someone, aren't I? I don't think so."

He puzzled me, this boy. "Well, yeah, but…People laugh when I dance. So I don't do it in public," I said carefully. "If this is a dancing game, I'm not sure I want to play."

His head lowered to meet my eyes. A curl of dark hair spilled down across his forehead. "By the time I'm through with you, people will be _cheering _when they see you dance."

I stared back into his eyes, studying them. "Who are you?" I said suddenly.

He didn't answer, just turned to the machine and swiped his card twice. His hands hit two green buttons below the screen. Then two yellow triangular buttons. The greens ones again. And again.

"Hit the arrows on the ground with your feet," he said after a while. "When the arrows on the screen -" He pointed to a bar at the top of my side of the screen. "- hit this spot right here. Make sure they match up, right foot right, left foot left, and front and back. It's not that hard."

I nodded and braced myself. The song started. I must have heard it before, because it seemed to be familiar to me. The word "Butterfly" flew up onto the screen. A swarm of arrows followed.

"Whoa!" I shrieked, struggling to follow the arrows.

The boy turned his head to me as his feet tapped and lights lit. "Only worry about the arrows that reach the top of the screen."

I was struggling, missing the arrows with each step. Violet words appeared on the screen, ridiculing me, screaming "BOO!" loudly.

I gave up on stepping and watched the boy as he leaped up and down beside me. His eyes were closed, and there was a look of pure happiness on his face. "PERFECT!" words in yellow flashed on his screen.

_How does he do it? _I thought, _He makes it look so easy…_

Something I never felt before swept over me. Determination, and…competition. I had never been competitive. But watching the boy dance lit up something I didn't know was there…a desire to…_win._

I looked back to my screen and watched an arrow climb up towards the bar. I prepared my left foot, raising it slightly off the ground. I lowered it…and hit the arrow!

"GREAT!" a green word shouted.

I kept going. Green words flooded the screen. I was smiling, even laughing. _This is just what it says…Great! _I thought, giggling as I hit two arrows at once.

The song ended, and I was almost sad of it. Rows of numbers appeared on the screen, and letters scrolled up where the bar had been. "C" it said, in a bright, pulsating pink color. I glanced at the boy's side of the screen. His was a green "A".

"Oh," I said, a little disappointed, "it's a grade."

The boy nodded, smiling. "You got a C. That's great!"

My nose wrinkled. "C's are great?"

"Well, yeah," he said, still smiling. "It's a hard game. And it was your first time playing. Most people don't even pass on their first time. I didn't even finish the song when I first played."

"Oh!" I said in surprise, "Then there's hope for me after all, isn't there?"

The boy laughed. "More than that, I'd say. Great job!"

I smiled widely, like I never had before. "Thanks. You did good too." I paused for a moment, mind wild with thoughts. "Um…can we…play again?"

He laughed again. "Since we didn't fail that song, we get to keep going. There's two more."

I clenched my fists in excitement. "Alright! Let's go!"

We locked eyes, twin smiles on our faces. He reached out and patted my shoulder. "Of course. I'll dance with you anytime."


	2. Chapter 1

**AUTHORS NOTE: Wow, I've actually updated. This is what happens when I'm grounded with nothing to do. Anyways, so here you go. Thanks to everybody who reviewed; I really appreciate it. This is where Lani's story really begins. I still don't own Dance Dance Revolution or any of the songs/lyrics, though I might like to. Hope ya'll like it.  
**** (K)**

**Chapitre**** 1**

"Go Lani!"

I grinned, but didn't turn around. My eyes remained glued to the screen, feasting on the arrows, unblinking. I sang breathlessly to myself as my feet followed:

_ I've been searching in the woods,  
And high up on the hills  
Just to find – to find my samurai  
Someone who won't regret  
To keep me in his net  
Yes I need – I need my samurai._

A chorus of voices from the crowd behind me joined in.

_Ay yi yi, I'm your little butterfly  
Green, black and blue  
Make the colors in the sky  
Ay yi yi I'm your little butterfly  
Green, black and blue  
Make the colors in the sky._

I stumbled, missed a step, but kept going, not bothering to keep singing. One GOOD wouldn't kill me, but it showed I was becoming careless. I twisted my lips into my war face, familiar to the people I traveled with.

The song ended. I blinked and caught my breath, waiting hungrily for my grade.

"Ooh…nice. _A_. Way to go, Lan!" Kris joined me on the pad, swinging her nimble gymnast legs over the bar.

I punched her shoulder. "Don't gimme that. You couldn't do any better."

Kris shook her head, sending her blonde locks swirling around her heart-shaped face. "Seriously, Lani. You missed the AA by more than 20 DP. _What_ do you call that? You're good for nothing!" She winked.

"Lay off, Kris. You know she hates the oni steps. And it's not like Lani ever forces you to play Captain Jack."

My heart skipped a beat at the voice, but I stopped myself from turning around as quickly as I wanted to.

"Yeah – thank God. But that's an entirely different story. If she insists on playing that sissy song, she may as well take on the hardest steps. Who invited you here anyways, Carter?"

"It's a free country, Desandres. I'll come as I wish." He flicked Kris on her sweat-framed forehead. She swatted his hand away and took the cue to step down.

Carter stepped up on the pad, slurping from his lemon slushie and dropping his tokens one by one into the slot. "I'm getting out of shape, anyhow. What has it been – two days? Long time to go without arrow-stomping, right Lani?" He winked at me over his shoulder.

"You better have a couple coins for me there, too. What, you think you can just show up in the middle of our practice session?" I protested, cocking an eyebrow. Such was our routine.

"But of course, my dear. I was just – Whoops! Looks like I dropped one." He feigned an attempt to feel for the token under the pad. "Got an extra one?"

I rolled my eyes and dug in my jean pocket for a spare coin. "Hurry! Ten seconds!" Carter announced, jeering as the machine beeped warnings at us.

My hand hit start the instant my coin was accepted. Carter stuck his tongue out at me. I stuck mine at him.

"Oh sure – never mind I've been waiting in line for what now, ten minutes?" Kris whined from her perch atop the right-side speaker.

"Don't the talented players get some kind of seniority over the noobs?" Carter shot back.

Kris shut up. Although it was true, she detested the word. After years of despising Dance Dance Revolution, she gave it a try some three weeks ago. She was still a basic/light player, but she had taken to the Dance Points scoring system quickly, being the math whiz she is. Carter and I had never been sure of what was holding her back; it certainly wasn't her physical abilities, and she was a Step Mania maniac, so her coordination wasn't to blame. I was sure it'd only be a couple more days of practice, but Carter thought her to be eternally cursed.

Carter, on the other hand, began DDRing a year ago. Though I had been playing for nearly three years before that, he became a rival of mine within his first week. Completely bypassing the trick (or standard, rather) level, he quickly gained a reputation as the best DDRer in the city. This frustrated me some at first, but after a year of him outscoring me at every song in every match, I'd grown used to it. The only drawback to Carter's instant DDR success was his ignorance of the older versions. He knew what I had told him, but he had never played anything before 7th mix. He was good at Extreme, our machine of habit, but severely handicapped in that he detested 5th mix. 5th was my favorite, and he knew this, but nothing I said could convince him to play it – or even set foot on its stage.

He stretched his arms over his head and leaned to each side. "Gosh, all this pent-up energy! Gimme a run for my money, Lani! Let's go…Cartoon Heroes!" His hand came down on his select button with determined force.

I let a puff of hot air escape my nose as I caught the select button to hold for mods. "You hate this song. _I _hate this song."

His eyebrows furrowed in attempt to keep a serious face. "Did I say anything about not hating it? No, I didn't think so." He scrolled over to 2x speed, grinning like a moron. "There's no rule that says I can't play a song I hate."

"Fine, fine." I chose 1.5x dark and we rapid-fired our select buttons to exit at the bottom of the screen. "But we're both gonna regret this." He bounced happily from sensor to sensor as we waited for our first arrows to graze the screen.

Then we were off.Down, down, right, left-down, up-up; arrows shooting up the screen, our legs in a frenzy. In the back of my head I could feel a crowd gathering behind us once again. I smiled and gasped for air, jumping madly around the pad, devouring arrows.

Finally the song ended, and we both caught our breath as we waited for the judges' verdict. Carter, AA – 43 greats and a good. Me, A – 60 greats and a bunch of junk on the bottom. Not too embarrassing. My eyes met Carter's, and he raised his eyebrows. We both turned to an applauding crowd and bowed giddily.

Carter turned back to choose the next song, and I scanned the crowd for familiar faces. Joe, the arcade technician off-duty, and his girlfriend. Four guys I'd seen DDRing a couple times at the mall on the East Side of the city – Jeff, Mario, Rick, and Yeol; all standard players. The usual spectators, and another group of four that I didn't recognize. They pushed closer to the machine, led by a girl with flaming red hair. She noticed me staring and met me with green eyes. I sensed a bad aura coming off her.

"Not bad," she remarked. I opened my mouth to say thank you, but she poked Carter in the back. "But how well can you hold down your Unlimited?"

An evil grin spread across his face. "So you think you've got me pinned, eh? Well watch this." He clicked over to the alphabetical song sort and moved the cursor over M.

I elbowed him. "You know I can't pass this," I hissed.

He shrugged. "I must do what my audience commands."

I took a deep breath, and we cleared our mods. "Here goes nothing."

Carter doesn't believe in bar hugging, and I'm not a big fan either. But when the song is MaxX Unlimited, you do what you have to do to stay alive. By forty seconds in, I was glued to the bar as if my life depended on it. Which it did. In a way.

We hit the freeze and relaxed for a split-second. I heard a voice behind me say "1/16" with a laugh, but then I turned my attention back to song as the arrows started up again. Carter seemed fine, but I knew I was never going to make it through the next stream. All too quickly, my right ankle gave out and I stumbled, only for an instant, but it was enough. I missed four steps, and my life bar crashed. I gave up, watching Carter's screen while trying to regain my breath. His combo was still good. The lunatic.

Red Hair patted my back. "Nice try." She grinned. Nothing about those words sounded sincere at all, affirming my instincts. I definitely did not like this girl.

The song ended, Carter panted, and the crowd cheered. His was an A, borderline great attack. Mine, of course, a big fat E. I raised my eyebrows at Carter and bowed my head, defeated but still smiling.

"Very well done." Red Hair hopped onto the pad, hanging on both bars and leaning forward between us. "But you're going way faster than you have to. That's why your GA is so bad; you're 1/16 of a second too early on every step."

My blood boiled. "Thank you very much. Now please, remove yourself from the stage. We've got two more songs."

She made no motion. "And you missy, you just generally suck. Why didn't you go down? I bet you can't even make it through the standard."

I cringed. She didn't realize she was right. "I can almost do it."

She laughed, throwing her head back wildly. "Oh, you're not fooling anybody."

Now I was flat-out pissed off. "And you can do better?"

"Hon, I could beat your E with my eyes closed."

I stepped off the pad, gesturing dramatically in a sweeping bow. "Go right ahead."

She turned to Carter. "You up for an encore?" He was still panting, but he nodded. The girl hit select, holding for mods. "You might want to try 1.5x; I know you can read it, and it'll help your timing."

God, how I would'veloved to lopoff her legs with a chain saw. Somebody'd better not hand me a chainsaw.

Kris stood at my side. "Wow, what a bitch. You think she can do it?"

"No. There's no way. I've never seen her before. I bet this is the first time she's been out of her basement, away from her PS2. Carter will crush her, even though he's tired right now."

We fell silent, watching them go at it, unable to speak again until the song was over.

"Well Lani, I dunno; but I'm pretty sure she passed."

I struck her with my forearm. "Ya think?"

The whole crowd was silent as we waited for the letter grades to stop scrolling. Carter, A – a slightly betterA, too. Red Hair, AA. It felt like the whole arcade rose up in a cheer. I couldn't believe my eyes.

"Okay." Carter struggled to catch his breath, keeled over with his hands against his knees. "Who…the hell…are…you?"

Red Hair leaned back on the bar, panting. "The name's…Darcy, and this…these guys here are my band of…traveling arcade junkies." She pointed at the three other guys I didn't recognize one by one. "Jordan…Righty, and Shane."

Carter could only nod, swallowing deeply. "Nice to…meetcha."


	3. Chapter 2

**AUTHORS NOTE: A million thank yous to everyone who reviewed; it means a ton to me. Special thanks to Zer0 Touma for pointing out a few of the errors in my previous chapters and coaxed me into editing them more carefully. This is an interesting write for me, because I'm able to draw lots from my experiences as a DDRer, then stretch the hell out of them. It's fun, and if you guys like it, even better. I still don't own Dance Dance Revolution or any of the songs/lyrics, though I might like to. Hope ya'll like it. (K)**

**Chapitre 2**

**  
** I was kicking a rock down the street towards my subdivision, when the rhythm of quick footsteps reached my ears. I stopped walking, but there was no need to turn around. Hands landed on my shoulders.

"What's up, Kris?"

She skipped out around me, walking backwards. "The question is what's up, _Lani_? It's Thursday, and yet it seems you've gotten off the bus at the wrong stop. What, no arcade today?"

I shrugged. I usually met Kris and Carter at the arcade on Thursdays after school for DDR and karaoke (I'd never been huge into karaoke, but Kris loved it). The bus we took home from school everyday also had a stop half a block away from our favorite arcade, so it was a pretty good deal for us. School was painful, but Thursdays weren't so bad.

Today I just didn't really feel like it.

"One of those days, eh?" She smiled a hesitant, lopsided smile. I continued kicking my rock.

"Think _she'll_ be there?"

"God Kris, shut up about her!"

Darcy, Darcy, Darcy. It had been a week since we met her, but Kris talked about her constantly. Not in admiration, though that was only natural of a beginner like Kris, mostly just questions that I didn't know the answer to. _Where did she come from? How long has she been playing? Do you think she has every song memorized? She didn't seem to be looking at the arrows at all when she played MaxX. Maybe she's a robot._

I wouldn't have minded so much if she were a robot. Geez, she'd humiliated me, even with my home-team advantage. As much as I tried not to think about her, Darcy irked me, big time. I prayed never to run into her again, and so far I'd been lucky – but then again, I'd only been out to the arcade twice since that day.

Come to think of it, I hadn't heard from Carter since that day either. He and I did go to the same school, and usually I ran into him all the time. It was like he was MIA.

Kris had been silent since my outburst, so I used this as an opportunity to start up conversation again. "I wonder what Carter's been up to lately."

"I haven't heard from him. You think he'll be there today?"

I shook my head. "I doubt it. He wasn't in any of his classes. Maybe he's sick or something." I hoped. I found it hard to believe that Carter could still be able to DDR after the events a week ago. Sure, he didn't get hit with embarrassment quite as badly as I had, but normally after something like this – or even something less serious than this – Carter would take a break from arrows for awhile, before I coaxed him back to the arcade.

Kris smirked. "Or what if –"

"Shut up!"

So she'd been thinking what I had. Chances were, Carter was at the arcade that very minute, in the middle of a very serious training session à la Darcy. That was just like him.

We'd reached my house and made our way up the vacant driveway. Guess Mom was out again. I fumbled with the lock on the front door and swung it open, bracing the screen door and stepping gingerly inside. Kris stood on the outside porch, firmly planted.

"What? You're not coming in?"

"I haven't been invited in."

"Shut up, Kris. Just come inside."

She obeyed, sliding her tote bag off her shoulder. "You know you always have to invite a vampire inside," she mumbled. I paid little attention to her; it was the same routine whenever she came over.

I could hear the PS2 on, music drifting down the stairs from my room. I bolted up the stairs. "You kids better not be screwing around with my…"

I came to the doorway of my room, where my two younger brothers were sprawled across my bed, eyes glued to the screen. I studied the patterns; Hysteria, trick – Zach, the older, must've had shuffle on. They were both doing reasonably well, though Matt seemed to be struggling without vivid arrows to follow.

"Why the hell are you guys playing Konamix?" My voice cost Matt a pair of goods, and he swore.

"All the PS2 versions are out on loan," Zach answered. Kris came up behind me, leaning out from around me to catch sight of their scores.

"On _loan_? Why are you loaning out my games again? Who?"

"Carter still has Extreme and Max2. I lent Max1 to this Vietnamese guy in my class who never heard of DDR."

"Whatever." I snuck in front of the TV to grab a pillbox container, earning a couple more swears from Matt. Ruffling his hair, I left the room, Kris following close behind.

"You better get my Max1 back before Monday!" I shouted to Zach from the hallway.

I heard the game audience cheer, indicating the end of the song. "You never would've noticed if I hadn't told you!" Zach shouted back at me.

I hopped down the first stair, back toward the landing. Kris had her hands on my shoulders, conga line-style. "It's not like you even play Max1 anymore, Lan," she pointed out, hopping down behind me. I kicked her in the knee, and she winced.

I stuffed my feet into my sneakers, not bothering to untie them. My hand twisted the doorknob open, and I looked over my shoulder for Kris.

"So what, we're going now?" she asked, not yet down the last two steps.

"Of course we are."

"You got tokens?"

I shook the pillbox container in my hand. It jingled with clinks. "Of course I do."

"Fine. Your treat then." I stuck out my tongue at her; she returned the compliment. "And I'm not dropping everything to go cry with you if your lover boy is there with the Red-Haired Dancing Queen."

"I don't expect you to." I held the screen door back for her as she stepped out, so it wouldn't slap her.

I tried my best to sound confident. Carter wasn't going to be there. Lover boy or not, he had more respect for me than that.

And even if he was there, it was a fifteen minute walk to the arcade. He'd have plenty of time to finish and get out of there before we arrived. I hoped.

Kris' legs are shorter than mine, and I could hear her breathing hard to keep up with my pace, which was fast, even for my long strides. Good girl – no complaints; she was learning. I had a habit of thinking of Kris as an apprentice rather than a best friend. I broke into an easy jog, then speeding slightly.

An exasperated whine resounded throughout the air. So much for not complaining.

"Lani! What the hell! It's not like we're under any…time constraints, here!" Alright, the girl could jump over her own head, no problem. I'd seen her tumble back and forth for hours with a pop can in her hand, never spilling a drop. And I was never much of a runner; yet she was huffing and puffing to keep up with me. Go figure.

_Well what if we are?_

She caught up to me at the last traffic light, at the intersection right in front of the arcade. By then we were both out of breath – warmed up, was the way I thought of it. Kris slapped me on the back.

"Thanks a lot, buddy. You know severe stomach cramps is exactly what I need before an afternoon of DDRing with you." I ignored her and speed-walked down the crosswalk, inching towards the arcade, now only a parking lot away.

"Lani." My walk became a run.

"Lani!"

I jumped up the step to the huge glass doors, heaving them open with all the weight of my weak, pink tee shirt-adorned body.

Kris' yell reached my ears just as I stepped inside. "He's not in there!"

My head was a swirl of flashing red-yellow-blue lights, going off like firecrackers in the black-lit darkness of the arcade. I spun on my heels, past the prize counter, past a row of high roller coin action games, to where the Extreme machine belched the closing notes of Can't Stop Falling In Love Speed Mix.

I heard the cheering of the game audience, and loud, obnoxious whoops of joy from within the arcade. Two of them; one that had been burned into my memory for the last year.

There were Carter and Darcy, hugging each other and jumping up and down wildly, for he had SDG'd. She was no longer red-haired, but had twin braids of jet black streaming from the back of her head. Not unlike my own.

An almost-breeze swept past me as Kris came to a skidding stop beside me. "Oh shit…Six greats. Are you kidding me? The old Carter could never…" The words died in the air.

"Oh shit," Kris repeated. "Lani…" She placed a hand on my back and turned me around. "Hey, you know what? I changed my mind about wanting to stay here. Let's go home. You wanna go home now, Lan?"

I turned sharply around, away from her. "Of course not," I said bitterly.

And with that, I ripped the elastics from my hair, letting my _naturally_ black locks swim loose.


End file.
